Nike just announced the “Nike NBA Jersey with NikeConnect”, a connected jersey that allows wearers to get highlight reels, scores, stats and exclusive content from and about their favorite players and teams with a tap of their phones on the jersey’s tag.
It looks really, really, really good (unsurprisingly).
Launching September 29 in stores around the country, the new jerseys are the fruit of Nike’s partnership with the NBA to be the exclusive supplier of jerseys and uniforms to the NBA.
By tapping the NikeConnect logo on the tags of jerseys and Nike shoes, folks get a world of content at their fingertips, the company promises.
The first step to getting access to all this stuff is, of course, to buy the jerseys, which anyone can do by hitting up Nike’s NBA site, the NBA’s official store, or any Nike store or official team store. The NikeConnect logo is handily displayed on the tag.
Once the gear’s in hand, get the app — which is available for both Android gadgets with NFC capability — and iOS11 enabled phones (iPhone 7 and above).
After launching the app, tap that smartphone to the tag at the bottom of a jersey and presto change-o there’s a world of content at any fan’s fingertips.
Once a user finishes signing in with a NikePlus account, fans are directed to a page that congratulates a user for making it that far with an image of their chosen jersey. Tap the jersey to get access to exclusive footage like pre-game arrival footage and highlight packages… as well as exclusive offers by hitting a game day tab.
After being directed to the “Team” tab in the app, fans get to a screen with a status bar of a pre-game countdown to tip-off, in-game scores, or post-game final scores. It also includes information about when a team is playing next, and player stats.
Team feeds include highlight reels of on- and off-court clips and shenanigans as well as images and GIFS that are totes magotes shareable.
App users are also able to get special offers like called “Upcoming Rewards” for future game days. They include exclusive licensed products, NBA2K18 boosts, tickets to games, Spotify playlists from athletes and much, much, much more (Nike promises).
And for audiences in China, just access QQ Music and 2K Online.
All in all, this is a pretty big deal that points the way forward to what connected experiences can look like when monster brands agree to partner up.
The integration looks fantastic and the opportunity to get actual exclusive offers should be compelling enough to keep folks active on the platform that Nike’s created.
In the end, looks like Nike has opened up yet another way to dominate in sports apparel.
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